Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Congratulations to Brian Shoffeit and Andrew Sauer who were both recognized this past weekend at the Global Connections Art and Essay Contest Awards Ceremony at Clayton State University! Brian won Honorable Mention for his essay, and Andrew won 2nd place for his essay. Both students received a monetary prize. There were almost 2000 entries for this competition and it featured entries from 5 different states, so to be recognized in this competition is quite the accomplishment! Congratulations Brian and Andrew!"

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Congratulations to the FSA Model UN Team! They competed at their last full team competition at Centennial High School Invitational on Friday, March 22, 2013. The team did very well, and several students were honored for this individual achievements. The list of individuals who were recognized are as follows:

In the UNICEF Committee:

Honorable Mention to Cuba- represented by Alperen Aydin

In the UNHRC Committee:

Outstanding Delegate to Thailand- represented by Beyza Akgun.

Honorable Mention to United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland- represented by Vikram Ruppa-Kasani,

Honorable Mention to Palestine- represented by Brian Shoffeit.

In the WHO Committee:

Outstanding Delegate to Japan-represented by Caroline Wittschen

Honorable Mention to Iran- represented by Aditya Choudhari.

In the UNSC Committee:

Honorable Mention to Guatemala- represented by Nuri Ozer

Congratulations to all of you, and to the entire team for a job well done this year! Our last competition will be in New York City April 10-13, 2013. Good luck to the ten students who will be representing Sweden at this competition."

We have received the great news that all four of our middle school students competed at Regional Media Festival won Superior Rating and qualified to compete at the state level on May 3rd, 2013. The state competition will be held at Clayton County Schools S. Truett Cathy Professional Learning Center. We wish good luck to our students at the State Level. These students are Erin Machado (8th Grade), Alex Atchison (8th Grade), Araneesh Pratap (7th Grade) and Vikram Ruppa-Kasani (7th Grade). Congratulations to these students, their parents and our coach Mr. Kaya.

We strongly recommend that students interested in media festival should visit last year's International Media Festival results on this website (http://www.ismf.net/judging-results) and see the winning projects. It will be inspiring to watch all these winning projects at the international level.

Students have recently been exploring eggs in Science Club. A few weeks ago we put eggs in vinegar and made predictions about what may happen to the egg. Today we observed that the outer egg shell was dissolved by the vinegar leaving behind only a thin membrane to hold the egg intact. Students got to feel, observe up close with flashlights and magnifying glasses, and even gently bounce the egg! The outside membrane was soft, smooth, wet, and rubbery according to student observation. Then we decided to see how high we could get the egg to bounce before breaking. We started at 2 inches and then it broke!

To explore at home with the "naked egg" experiment, check out this link:

Science club recently explored buoyancy in an “eggcellent” experiment! Fresh and salt water was discussed and students were asked to predict which cup of water would float an egg. Students recorded their predictions on data sheets and then tested each glass of water. Students concluded that since fresh water is less dense, objects will float more easily in the dense salt water. Try out this easy experiment at home!

Reading club recently read several books about the desert. To extend learning, students made desert animals and cacti from salt dough. Students used the stories as inspiration while shaping their turtles, snakes, etc. After the salt dough dried student painted their creations. Salt dough is easy to make and a great way for students to make sculptures, hand prints or beads. The link below details a great salt dough recipe to try out at home!

Last week 3rd graders learned about sound board with a fun and engaging experiment called "chicken in a cup". The vibrations from the string would be almost silent without the cup. When you use the cup, it spreads the vibrations and amplifies them. Pianos and music boxes use wood to act as a sounding board to make the instrument louder.

FSA Students students celebrated PI DAY in different ways. 7th Graders, celebrated pi day with three activities,the first activity they did was pi memorization activity in which students were given limited time to memorize pi digits in groups and competed against each other. One group was able to memorize and write down correctly up to 29 digits. During the second activity, students measured the diameter and perimeter of various round objects using strings and divided them to prove the pi number.The group came up with the closest number to the number pi won. They had fun competing and of course enjoyed delicious food. One other thing that 7th graders did was what we called Mr. PI. Mr. PI is the person who has the pi numbers as his phone number. Students were so excited to talk to him on speaker but unfortunately he didn't answer :)

Thursday, March 21, 2013

On Friday, March 15, FSA 6th, 7th, and 8th graders had a trip to Medieval Times. History was an experience within the walls of their 11th century-style castle. During the Medieval Times Educational Matinee, our students stepped back into the Middle Ages as they witnessed medieval games of skill, spectacular horsemanship and even an authentic jousting tournament. As the knights battled, the serfs and wenches served a King’s feast that was eaten Medieval-style: sans silverware!

Students were enthralled with the spectacular show and raved about the delicious lunch they enjoyed with their classmates and teachers. This trip became one of the most memorable activity of this year for everyone. Please see pictures here:

In honor of their study of mollusks, on Thursday, March 14th Mrs. Butler announced her 7th grade Life Science classes by using a conch “shell trumpet”. Conch “shell trumpets” were historically used as part of religious practices and for ceremonial purposes. A conch is the shell of a very large sea snail called a mollusk. These “shell trumpets” can produce a very loud sound!

Maybe you think that snails, clams, mussels, squid, and octopods are very different. 7th grade Life Science students have been studying these organisms and know they are all invertebrates and belong to one of the 3 main groups of mollusks: Gastropods, Bivalves, and Cephalopods.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

We have just received the great news that 11 of our 7th grade students have been recognized by the Duke University Talent Identification Program.

Eight of these students achieved state recognition and three of them have earned national recognition.

NATIONAL RECOGNITION

Araneesh Pratap

Hasan Unal

Jean Moorman

STATE RECOGNITION

Aditya Choudhari

Nicholas Glotzbach

Julian Hamelberg

Omar Kayyali

Nadir Lewis

Alice Qiao

Vikram Ruppa-Kasani

Brian Shoffeitt

In addition to the Recognition Ceremony, these students are also invited to participate in the Summer Studies Program at Duke TIP University this summer.

Congratulations to these students and their parents. Wonderful Job!

What is DUKE TIP?

Duke TIP's 7th Grade Talent Search is the largest program of its kind in the nation. Since its inception in 1980, over 2 million students have participated. The 7th Grade Talent Search identifies academically talented seventh graders based on standardized test scores achieved while attending elementary or middle school. Candidates are invited to take the ACT or the SAT college entrance exam as seventh graders, which allows them greater insight into their academic abilities. Participants gain valuable benefits and have access to unique resources for gifted students.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Last month, four FSA students, 6th grader Joe Pederson, 7th grader Nuri Ozer, and 8th graders Andrew Sauer and Davis Tardif, represented our school at the Atlanta Regional Finals of the National History Bee.

Of the thousands of students at schools across the country who participate in the National History Bee, only a select few are invited to advance to National History Bee. Of these, Nuri and Andrew have been invited to compete in the Championship.

Nuri and Andrew will compete in National History Bee Championship in Atlanta on June 1st.

Congratulations to these students, their and parents and our social studies teachers, Mr. Stiffler and Mrs. Bragg.

We are pleased to inform our school community that FSA Science Olympiad Team finished the season by winning the third place trophy at the State Science Olympiad Tournament held on Saturday, March 16 at Southern Polytechnic State University in Marietta. Head Coaches Pam Walsh and Gloria Stathos were extremely proud of the fifteen-member team, who put in hundreds of hours after school and on weekends to prepare for this tournament. “Success in Science Olympiad requires lots of support from parents,” explained Mrs. Stathos. “We had eight parents who volunteered to coach events this year, none of whom were returning to coach an event they had previously coached. Six of these parents coached their students to medals at the state tournament.” According to Mrs. Walsh, “That is a stellar performance for a rookie coach.” Prospects for next year’s team look great as this year’s team included ten seventh graders.

The Fulton Science Academy Team earned medals in the following events:

1st Place - Crime Busters - Coached by Mrs. Kasani

J. J. Lu

Vikram Ruppa-Kasani

1st Place – Forestry – coached by Mrs. Butler

Lilly Wester

Aditya Choudhari

1st Place – Heredity – coached by Ms. Doraiswami

Araneesh Pratap

Sree Sanku

1st Place – Write It, Do It – coached by Mrs. Stathos

Suraj Chatrathi

Beyza Akgun

2nd Place – Disease Detectives – coached by Mrs. Lewis

Nadir Lewis

Suraj Chatrathi

2nd Place – Dynamic Planet – coached by Mrs. Walsh

Lilly Webster

Aditya Choudhari

2nd Place – Keep the Heat – coached by Mr. Near

Brian Shoffeitt

Suraj Chatrathi

2nd Place – Meteorology – coached by Mr. Ambardekar

Lilly Webster

Neel Ambardekar

3rd Place – Shock Value – coached by Mr. Wang

Simon Wang

Brian Shoffeitt

3rd Place – Water Quality – coached by Mrs. Butler

Sule Anik

Vikram Ruppa-Kasani

4th Place – Road Scholar – coached by Mrs. Stathos

J. J. Lu

Suraj Chatrathi

Congratulations to students, parents, and coaches for this great achievement in our first year. A BIG THANK YOU goes to our parent and teacher coaches. They have certainly made a big difference in the lives of our students this year. Special THANKS to Mrs. Walsh and Mrs. Stathos. Thanks to their leadership, we have shown a great team spirit. Future is bright for FSA Science Olympiad Team.